Change is afoot for the role and requirements of integration for modern software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers and enterprises adopting shared services models. Reuse is becoming an important issue, as are patterns of automation. The notion of reuse of integration -- with added emphasis on integration as a service -- has prompted a different approach to integration infrastructure. The new demand is driven by ecologies of services, some from the Web "cloud," and also the need to efficiently scale the delivery of services and applications composed of many disparate component services. Integrations require reusable patterns, high performance, as well as many different means of access from clients. To help better understand the new landscape for integration models, join a sponsored podcast discussion with Phil Wainewright, an independent consultant, director of Procullux Ventures, and ZDNet SaaS blogger, as well as Annrai O’Toole, CEO of Cape Clear Software. Moderator: Dana Gardner. Read a full transcript at http://briefingsdirect.blogspot.com/2007/09/integration-infrastructure-approaches.html. Sponsor: Cape Clear Software.

Rather than losing control to ever-increasing complexity -- and gaining less and less insight into the root causes of problematic applications and services -- enterprises and on-demand application providers alike need to predict how systems will behave under a variety of conditions. By adding real-time analytics to their systems management practices, operators can fully determine the normal state of how systems should be performing. Then, by measuring the characteristics of systems under many conditions over time, datacenter administrators and systems operators gain the ability to predict and prevent threats to the performance of their applications and services. As a result they can stay ahead of complexity, and contain the costs of ongoing high-performance applications delivery. Here to help us understand how to manage complexity by leveraging probabilistic systems management and remediation, we are joined in the podcast by Mazda Marvasti, the CTO of Integrien Corp. Moderator: Dana Gardner. Read a full transcript of the podcast: http://briefingsdirect.blogspot.com/2007/09/probabilistic-it-analysis-predicts.html. Sponsor: Integrien Corp.

It seems that businesses, whether they're small or global 2000 concerns, are buying more supplies using search at some point in the procurement process. Some people begin and end a procurement journey with search. They actually buy the products through a strictly search-dependent process. Yet many still use a combination of word-of-mouth, search, and traditional information gathering to guide them to the best deals on the most goods. To find out just how much B2B buying behaviors are shifting, Enquiro Search Solutions conducted a survey earlier in 2007. They found that online search was consistently employed throughout the entire buying process, from awareness right through to purchase. There’s still a lot of back and forth: Offline factors influence online activity, and vice-versa, for a merging of the online and the offline worlds. This audio podcast, and accompanying video-podcast, plumb the depths of Enquiro's findings and vet them through the experiences of B2B search engine ZoomInfo. Join Gord Hotchkiss, President and CEO of Enquiro, and Bryan Burdick, COO of ZoomInfo, with moderation by Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions, for a deep dive discussion on B2B search trends and analysis. Sponsor: ZoomInfo. Read a full transcript of the discussion at http://briefingsdirect.blogspot.com/2007/09/briefingsdirect-podcast-transcript-on.html. View a full-length, multi-media movie of the discussion at http://www.interarbor-solutions.com/Video/IAS_ZIESS_006.html.

The impact that Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) has on an organization is deep and wide. The changes required to bring SOA to fruition and make it as productive as possible affect the way both IT leaders and business managers think and operate. To provide a solid foundation on how SOA impacts a business, Dr. Paul Brown, a principal software architect at TIBCO Software, wrote "Succeeding with SOA: Realizing Business Value Through Total Architecture." The book emphasizes a "Total Architecture" perspective for SOA and advocates how business processes are the real focus. Brown calls on businesses to define, fully grasp, control, manage and adjust business processes as the rudders that steer business agility, powered by SOA methods. In this podcast, Dr. Brown is interviewed about his book by Enterprise Architect Todd Biske, with moderation by Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions. Sponsor: TIBCO Software. Read a full transcript of the discussion at http://briefingsdirect.blogspot.com/2007/08/total-architecture-means-aligning.html.

Welcome to the latest BriefingsDirect SOA Insights Edition, Vol. 18, a weekly discussion and dissection of Services Oriented Architecture (SOA)-related news and events, with a panel of IT analysts. In this episode, recorded May 11, 2007, our experts examine the still-maturing technology around Rich Internet Applications (RIA), as well as Microsoft's Silverlight offering. Please join noted IT industry analysts Joe McKendrick, enterprise architect Todd Biske, and independent blogger Barb Darrow for our discussion, hosted and moderated by Dana Gardner. Read a full transcript of the podcast at http://briefingsdirect.blogspot.com/2007/09/briefingsdirect-soa-insights-analysts.html.